The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has cited President Trump’s claim of a national energy emergency to speed up permits for new gas pipelines and other projects.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has created a new class of “emergency” permits for fossil fuel projects, raising the possibility that pipelines, mines, power plants and other facilities could be fast-tracked for approval as part of President Trump’s demand to increase oil, gas and coal production.
The move could reduce the opportunities for the public and local officials to weigh in on the effects of proposed projects. It may even short-circuit the National Environmental Policy Act, a 55-year-old law that requires federal agencies to analyze the environmental effects of major projects before they are built. That process can take months or even years, depending on the project’s complexity.
“The Trump administration appears to be gearing up to use false claims of an ‘energy emergency’ to fast-track and rubber-stamp federal approvals for projects across the country that will be destructive to America’s wetlands, waterways and communities,” said David Bookbinder, the director of law and policy at the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group.
Any individual, company or federal or state agency that wants to build a project in navigable waters of the United States, or discharge anything into those waters or wetlands, needs a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
For decades, the Corps granted emergency permits to quickly repair roads, shipping channels and other facilities that have been destroyed by a hurricane or other calamity. In those cases, lives and property were at stake.
But in recent days, the agency has made hundreds of energy projects eligible for expedited decisions, citing an executive order signed by Mr. Trump that declared that the United States faced an energy emergency. Mr. Trump directed the agency to draw up a list of key projects and ordered it to “use, to the fullest extent possible and consistent with applicable law, the emergency Army Corps permitting provisions to facilitate the nation’s energy supply.”